


Rhyme and Reason

by honeysuckers



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Pining, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-07 10:47:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19083472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/honeysuckers/pseuds/honeysuckers
Summary: Three times Nursey stops Dex from seeing his poetry and one time he reads it aloud.





	Rhyme and Reason

_1._

Nursey knows he’s in deep when he starts writing poetry about Dex. Usually, when he has a crush, he’ll write about love and longing with broad strokes, speaking of _want_ and _need_ in theoreticals. Usually, he writes about how the object of his affection makes him feel and fills the page with the overflow of emotions. But when he sees the poem pulled up on his laptop, he’s written about fire and rough hands, about electricity and red hair. And Nursey knows he’s screwed.

Nursey moves to delete the whole thing, but he’s got Advanced Poetry in the morning and he has to bring in at least four poems for this peer editing thing they’re doing, and he’s been having _major_ writer’s block. The thing is, this one is better than the other three poems he’s written. Nursey rereads it one more time; it’s not overtly romantic, and he and Dex don’t have any mutual friends in Advanced Poetry so no one will connect the dots.

The poem glares at him from the screen of the computer, and Nursey glares right back. Either he prints this one for class or he stays holed up in the library for another three hours while he tries to write something ( _anything_ ) else. He gives up and resentfully presses _print_.

Nursey closed his laptop and shoved it into his bag, walking to the printers while fantasizing about the full night of sleep he’s going to get. One of the printers rumbles to life, preparing to spit out Nursey’s work when Dex appears at his side.

“Hi Nurse,” he says, and Nursey nearly chokes. “Bitty made muffins, if you wanna stop by the Haus?”

He can’t help it when a smile breaks out on Nursey’s face. “I’d love to!”

And then a sheet of paper flies out of the printer and Dex grabs it before Nursey can. “Poetry?” he asks, and Nursey nearly falls over grabbing it out of the redhead’s hand.

“Yeah! It’s nothing! For class!” He stammers out, quickly slipping the paper into his bag.

Dex fixes him with an incredulous stare. “Okay. Whatever you say.”

Nursey’s heart skips several beats as he walks to the Haus with Dex, their arms bumping together whenever Nursey looks up at the night sky. Even dwarfed by the infinite sky above him, Dex’s presence at his side is impossible to ignore.

_2._

Dex is a tactile person. He plays with the cuffs of his sweaters and thrums on Nursey’s calf when Nursey throws his legs across his lap on the ratty green couch Bitty hates. He runs his hands through his hair, even when it’s cut short (and especially when he’s just cut it). Nursey wants to grab his hands, have him play with Nursey’s fingers instead.

It’s insufferable, laying splayed out in the living room of the Haus, with Dex running his hand absentmindedly over Nursey’s jeans as he tries to write.

Dex is just scrolling through his phone, but Nursey has misspelled at least seventeen words in the past ten minutes because Dex lingered on his knee or gave him a light squeeze. Nursey wants to swat his hand away so he can focus, or climb into Dex’s lap and kiss him, but he’s writing about the way the early morning sun caught on Dex’s hair at practice this morning, so he does neither.

“One day, you gotta show me your poetry,” Dex says.

Nursey is tempted to slam his laptop shut, even though Dex can’t possibly see the screen from where he’s sitting. “Absolutely not,” he retorts, almost too quickly.

“I’ll read it either way when you get published.” Dex’s mouth quirks into a half smile as Nursey scowls at him. “You know I will.”

“I guess I’ll just never get published then.”

Dex rolls his eyes and grabs at Nursey’s laptop. “One poem, come on.”

Nursey pulls the computer away, heart pounding, because he and Dex are _friends_ and friends don’t write poetry about each other. At least they don’t under normal circumstances; Nursey’s pretty sure his situation is an outlier, because Dex has really pretty eyes and his lips look soft even though Nursey’s never seen him put on lip balm so who can blame him for writing about it.

“I’ll read you my poetry when New York City sinks into the ocean,” Nursey says, slapping at Dex’s arm.

“Oh, so three years from now?”

“Shut up, Dex.”

_3._

It’s a deceivingly warm winter day when Chowder demands they splurge at get fancy hot chocolate and take a walk by the river. Nursey walks between Dex and Chowder, blowing on the hot drink in hand. It’s been a while since the three of them just hung out, not studying or at practice. Nursey relishes in it, Chowder filling them in on his Valentine’s Day plans with Caitlin and Dex complaining about one of his professors. It’s all peaceful and serene, the sun glittering on the river and the sweetness of the hot chocolate on his tongue.

The utopic moment is shattered when Anna, a girl from Nursey’s Advanced Poetry class, hops off a bench and waves at him.

“Derek! Hi!” she greets, bounding over to him. “I wanted to find you after class yesterday but I had work--I just wanted to say that poem you read? Oh my _god_.”

Nursey buries his face in his hand. “Oh, no, did you see how Graham chewed me out for not sticking to the measure?”

“Oh, come on, you know he has no taste.”

Before Nursey can reply, Chowder chimes in. “I wanna hear this poem.”

Anna’s eyes widen. “Yes! Have him read it for you, there’s something _so_ lovely about the fire imagery in it.” Nursey groans internally, hoping Chowder will forget about it as soon as Anna leaves. He knows the poem she’s talking about, knows how he wrote about the nurturing aspects of fire, how half of it was written while watching Dex at practice. “Anyways, I’ve gotta go, nice seeing you Derek!”

“Bye, Anna!” he waves, not making eye contact with either Dex or Chowder’s intent stares.

Dex lifts Nursey’s chin so he’s forced to meet Dex’s eyes, a gesture so intimate it makes Nursey go weak in the knees. “You’re gonna read us that poem,” Dex says, voice low and serious.

Before Nursey can do something dumb like kiss him, Nursey breaks away and runs down the path from Dex. “You’ll have to catch me first!” He shouts before taking off, Dex and Chowder only a few paces behind him.

_4._

Winter in Massachusetts is more intense than New York City. As grey and depressing as the streets of Manhattan get when the snow turns black with city grime, at least the snow gets cleared away. Nursey, months into his second Samwell winter, almost misses the sludge of New York.

And, his jacket tore. It’s not anything bad, just in the lining of the pocket, but it’s his nice wool jacket that looks stylish _and_ is warm enough for the weather. So, sue him if he’s complaining.

“My phone ended up _inside_ my coat today!” he laments, throwing the offending jacket onto the kitchen table at the Haus. “And it ripped even more trying to get it out! I don’t have time to get it fixed! The nearest tailor is practically in Boston!”

Dex glares up at Nursey from his textbook, heaving a sigh. “Give it to me.”

“It’s a nice coat, Dex, I’m not just gonna give it away--”

“Not what I meant,” Dex says, rolling his eyes. “I’ve got a repair kit stashed with my tools, let me fix it.”

Nursey stares blankly at the redhead, trying to process. “You can sew?”

Dex replies with another sigh and grabs the jacket off the table. Nursey scrambles to follow him into the basement where he’s stashed his tool kit. Dex pulls it out from where it was nestled next to the hot water heater and digs around before he finds a beat up altoids tin. Nursey crouches down next to him as he pulls out a needle and a spool of black thread, threading it deftly before inspecting the tear.

Without any shame, Nursey studies Dex’s stitches. He works with practiced ease, doing something complex with the fabric so that the thread isn’t visible. His rough fingers work the needle with a gentleness so foreign to what Nursey’s watched him do on the ice that he has to make sure it’s really Dex who he’s sitting with on the basement floor.

“You know, you still haven’t read me any of your poetry,” Dex says after a few minutes of silence. Nursey freezes. Dex looks at him, cocks his head. “C’mon, read me something.”

He takes a deep breath. Dex looks so very _Dex_ in this moment, all contradictions and competence and sad eyes. “I’ve got something I started last night,” Nursey finally says, a little breathless.

“Okay.” Dex nods at him to get on with it, and Nursey pulls up the document on his phone.

_“I’m lovesick again, but not for the feeling of a heart_   
_Beating against mine or the warm touch of lips together_ _  
_Whispering blinding and meaningless words.”

His voice isn’t as steady as it usually is when he reads his work, but Dex’s stitching stops and Nursey feels blood race in his ears.

_“I’m lovesick again, because you’ve been burning_   
_At the edges of my mind and I can’t put you out_ _  
_Because this discomfort has become something pleasant.”

Dex places the jacket on the floor beside him and watches Nursey. Nursey stares back, eyes wide.

_“I’m lovesick again, and your kiss might be the cure.”_

Dex swallows visibly and Nursey clenches his fists, instantly regretting this. He breaks eye contact with the other man, digging his fingernails into his palms as he waits for Dex to say something, _anything._

A hand falls on on Nursey’s wrist. “Do you wanna find out?”

“Huh?” Nursey looks up at Dex, who gives him an airy laugh.

“If my kiss is the cure or whatever.”

Nursey can only nod, and then Dex is kissing him. It’s messy and uncoordinated and they fall off kilter when Nursey kisses back, but sparks rush through his veins as Dex pulls Nursey closer and closer. Nursey wraps his arms around Dex, both of them smiling into the kiss. 

He’ll definitely need to revise the ending of that poem.

**Author's Note:**

> I can write pretty much a single thing, which is tiny snapshots of relationships with no plot whatsoever! I wanted to write every poem Nursey writes in this, but poetry is not my strong suit so I only wrote one.  
> Comments are so greatly appreciated!! xoxo

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Poems for Rhyme and Reason](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20075491) by [Hime2461](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hime2461/pseuds/Hime2461)




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